2 Common Spanish Difficulties Made Simple

     Today as our first post ever (yay!) we'll talk about 2 of the most common difficulties beginner and advanced students face. Everyone that has ever tried learning Spanish knows that it is complicated in many ways. The grammar is very different and quite extense. Let´s not even talk about pronunciation.

Luckily, you've got us.

1. Personal Pronouns.

     Spanish has several different subject pronouns and wich one to use will depend on the situation, the gender, the audience you are talking to, and other circumstances. 

E.g. Tú eres mi hermano.

     Here, we use Second Person Point of View in its singular form. The equivalent of this in english would be 'you'. This pronoun is gender neutral. You can basically translate many simple sentences word-by-word in order to practice. Just remember the importance of the tilde, or the graphic accent. That marks the difference between 'you' and 'your'.

In this case, Tú eres mi hermano would be 'You are my brother'. 

Some other examples could be:

- Él es un actor / He is an actor

- Ella no es una enfermera, ella es una doctora /  She is not a nurse, she is a doctor.

2.  Articles.

     Today we will only focus on the most used articles. Many beginner and even advanced spanish students have difficulties understanding and using these. Take a look at the chart below.

Chart made by speakinglatino.com

     Articles are gender specific. Don´t forget that. 

Usually if a noun ends in 'a' is femenine and if it ends in 'o' is masculine. If it involves 'e' or 'u' it will more than likely be gender neutral. Gender neutral nouns are used with masculine articles.

     Now, there is an exception to these generalities. If a femenine noun starts with the same vowel as the one ending the article you have to use a masculine article. E.g. Agua

     Saying 'La agua' is incorrect. It's like saying 'An book' or 'A astronaut'. If there is an adjective between the article and the noun, this rule does not apply and you keep it as usual.

     - El agua. (The water)

     - La amplia agua. (The ample water)

     - El hombre. (The man)

     - La mujer. (The woman)

     -Un hombre. (A man)

     -Una mujer. (A woman)

     You can find many more examples and also excercises online in various sources. These are just some of the things that we've seen that are very confusing to new spanish learners. If you are interested in learning more Spanish or having a specific topic explained, please leave a comment.

See you next time!